Debt keeps mounting

Besieged by myriad lawsuits and a fabulously expensive lifestyle, Michael Jackson has been borrowing from his own assets to keep a massive personal debt at bay, The New York Times said today.

Drawing from interviews with his close advisers, music industry friends and court records, the newspaper pieced together a map of Jackson's troubled finances that hinge on a personal debt of around $US200 million ($A279.21 million) that comes due in several years.

Facing flagging record sales, hundreds of lawsuits and now the prospect of a court case on child molestation charges that could cost him millions of dollars, Jackson has been dipping into his huge assets to satisfy creditors, the daily said.

Jackson has secured some loans on his biggest asset: his half-ownership of the Beatles catalogue, which is conservatively valued at $US272 million ($A379.73 million) - Sony Music Entertainment owns the other, equally valued, half.

Sony executives quoted by the daily said if Jackson defaults on one of the loans he secured on the catalogue, the company would have the right to buy his share.

There are at least four liens against his 1,092ha Neverland ranch near Santa Barbara, California, one of which was from the State of California for unpaid taxes - it was dropped after Jackson paid them early this year.

The other claims on the sprawling estate come from Sony Music in connection with a loan, a German concert promoter who is suing Jackson for failing to appear at a series of charity concerts, and his former financial adviser Myung Ho-Lee who says he was not paid his salary.

In Lee's lawsuit, the daily said, the former adviser said he helped Jackson borrow about $US230 million ($A321.09 million) to refinance earlier loans - in 1998 he used part of a $US140 million ($A195.45 million) loan to pay off an earlier $US90 million ($A125.65 million) debt and, in 2000 borrowed $US60 million ($A83.76 million) to pay off a $US30 million ($A41.88 million) debt assumed the year before.

The daily said it was not clear how much of Jackson's estimated $US200 million ($A279.21 million) dollar debt has been repaid so far.

A real estate agent told The New York Times Jackson tried to put his ranch on the market this year for $US50 million ($A69.8 million). There were no takers, the agent said.

So huge are Jackson's expenses and personal debt that his advisers earlier this year tried to limit his spending to $US1 million ($A1.4 million) a month, a person familiar with the singer's financial situation told the newspaper.